Two 'good books' helped Rev. John Edgar lift up the South Side

Sunday

Few people have done more to lift their community than the Rev. John Edgar.

He exudes positivity. His staff calls him a visionary. He smiles and talks with the same enthusiasm about small or failed programs that he's launched as he does about his most successful endeavors.

His nonprofit, Community Development for All People, has distributed $20 million in free clothing and household items to more than 150,000 people. CD4AP organizers have helped bring $85 million to the South Side to develop affordable housing, providing livable space for more than 500 families. They've helped make families healthier by providing fresh fruits and vegetables to nearly 500 people every day. And more, much more.

But in the eyes of Edgar, known to many in the community as "Pastor John," it’s not his magnetic personality or charismatic leadership that helped bring about transformational change on the South Side, one of Columbus’ most historically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Edgar said it was his faith in God and a simple approach that anyone in any community can duplicate: asset-based community development.

“Change occurs when we bring the resources and the assets that already exist together and focus them on the next opportunity,” he said. “And the people in any community are always the primary asset.”

Edgar, 66, said that every successful program has begun by asking community members about their hopes and dreams, and assembling the resources to make it a reality. The resources are always available because we live in a divine economy of abundance, Edgar said.

“God made it all. God made it good. And God made it so that there's enough for every good purpose if we simply share what's already here,” he said.

Second 'good book'

Edgar learned about this assets-based approach from a book he read, “Building Communities From the Inside Out” by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight. It bounced around in his head for several years before he decided to test it himself.

In 1999, that time came, and he opened a store unlike any other. The store carried household items and clothing, from sandals to evening gowns — all with no price tag. Everything was free, donated mostly by members of the South Side community where the store was located.

The store was wildly popular. Donors and beneficiaries alike would mix, mingle and get to know one another. The clients appreciated being treated like shoppers, not beggars. But despite Edgar’s foundational belief that the generosity of others would keep the store flush with assets, he worried the success might be short-lived.

“I thought, ‘What are we going to do when everything that we’ve collected is gone?'” he said. “But that just never happened.”

For the next 20 years, donations rolled in, keeping the store stocked to this day.

Norma Hurt, 85, began volunteering at the store when it opened. She said getting there and helping the customers is the first thing she thinks about in the morning.

“I love them, and they love me,” she said.

The free store proved to Edgar that the asset-based approach worked. He was superintendent of the South Columbus District of the United Methodist Church at the time, and shared the lesson of the free store with the leadership at the 78 churches he oversaw.

“If you give the best you have, no matter how meager it seems, God will take and multiply,” he said.

Founding a church

Edgar decided the best thing he had to give was his faith. So in 2002, he became the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church for All People at the intersection of Parsons Avenue and East Whittier Street.

Katelin Hansen began attending the church in 2012 while she was pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at Ohio State University. She said the experience changed her life.

“I’ve never felt something so good and so right,” she said. “It set me back on my heels.”

The change was so profound that she scrapped her plans of pursuing a postdoctoral position at a coastal university for her current job as strategic initiatives director for Community Development for All People. The nonprofit was established in 2003 to be the outreach arm of the church.

The biggest test to Edgar’s approach came in 2005. He listened to his congregation and heard they wanted safe, affordable places to live.

“If we're really serious that we want to help people achieve their dreams, then we ought to be doing something about housing,” he recalled thinking.

Edgar considered the assets available — the city's South Side was riddled with vacant houses and community members in need of work. Why not put the unemployed to work fixing up the blighted houses?

That idea became a sermon, but Edgar didn’t know how that would work, nor did he own any vacant property to test his theory.

A man happened to be volunteering at the church that Sunday. He also just happened to own a blighted duplex just four blocks away. He approached Edgar after the sermon and offered his property and financial support to see the vision through.

“In other words, put up or shut up,” Edgar said. He had to accept the offer and he facilitated the task through the nonprofit.

The results were nearly disastrous.

It turns out a lot of the men who raised their hands when Edgar asked from the pulpit for out-of-work skilled tradesmen had little experience beyond carrying shingles and sweeping up sawdust. Edgar also learned the authorities aren’t too keen on groups of unskilled workers gutting houses without permits or licensed professionals on site.

The city shut the project down, and it stayed on hold for months.

“We had to go find a real general contractor to help bail us out,” Edgar said. They did, and before 2005 ended, they finished the restoration.

When the first two families CD4AP helped house moved in, a ribbon-cutting event was held. “We called a news conference because we were kind of kindergarten happy,” Edgar said.

A big player was watching from the wings.

Validation and expansion

Around that time, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which is about a half-mile north of the church on Parsons, was expanding and focusing on the social factors that play a role in the health of children. One of those factors was housing.

The hospital took notice of what Edgar’s nonprofit had done, and executives there became interested in teaming up for an initiative to build and restore homes in the neighborhood directly south of the hospital.

For Edgar, the hospital was a powerful asset to help provide for the wants of his community. For Nationwide Children’s Hospital, getting Edgar onboard was equally crucial for what became the "Healthy Homes" initiative.

“It gave the program immediate credibility in our community. Our neighbors understood that if Rev. Edgar was involved, that our intentions were good,” said Tim Robinson, CEO of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in an email statement.

Again, Edgar’s approach was affirmed.

'This is the model'

In recent years, the nonprofit has led a program to address the high rate of infant mortality on the South Side.

Four times a year, it holds a two-part event for new and expecting families as part of their 1st Birthday program. The first hour is a resource fair to teach and provide information about prenatal and infant care. The second hour is a party to celebrate the birthdays of every child in the community who has turned 1.

More than 500 families have gone through the program, and each has reached the first birthday milestone, Edgar said.

The group also started a social enterprise next to the church called Bikes for All People, which sells new and used bikes, repairs bikes on a sliding scale and teaches repairs. The profits have paid for about 1,000 bicycles and bicycle helmets for local children.

In 2018, the nonprofit opened the All People's Fresh Market food bank across the street from the church that deals in such foods as fresh fruits and vegetables.

“It invites people to a healthier lifestyle just by infusing their diets with good food,” said Erin West, the nonprofits director of Healthy Eating and Living.

The All People's Fresh Market distributes the most food by volume per day of all the locations in the 20 counties served by the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

CD4AP also offers several youth development programs and is working on a variety of other endeavors, including starting an art museum.

“If I listed all the things this organization has done it might seem like a unicorn,” said Dan Sharpe, vice president of community research and grants management for the Columbus Foundation.

“This is the model,” he said. “This is how you can actually achieve community transformation.”

Edgar, now retired as pastor of the Church for All People, works exclusively with the nonprofit. Replicating the successes that CD4AP has achieved is his biggest driving force.

To help others get started on that community transformation, CD4AP offers classes on leadership and community building at the South Side Neighborhood Leadership Academy. Staff members teach seminary classes to pastors and host an annual conference to teach others about the asset-based approach.

That's important to Edgar because there are no plans to expand the programs beyond the South Side neighborhood.

“Our strength," he said, "is that we have now 20 years of established relationships of mutuality with the people of the South Side listening to their dreams."

klecker@dispatch.com

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